IIT-Kharagpur graduate among 15 held in Telangana for circulating child abuse content; all repeat offenders, victims mostly girls aged 6–14

HYDERABAD: In a major crackdown on child sexual exploitation content, the child protection unit (CPU) of the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) has arrested 15 repeat offenders for watching, storing, and distributing Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM).

Among the arrested is a 30-year-old IIT-Kharagpur graduate employed at a Hyderabad-based software firm. All the accused are currently in judicial custody.The child protection unit was set up in Feb 2025 by chief minister A Revanth Reddy to monitor and curb digital circulation of CSEAM. Since its inception, 294 cases have been registered, and 110 offenders arrested across the state.The latest operation, conducted on Wednesday, targeted individuals linked to 57 CSEAM complaints flagged by Interpol tiplines and routed through the ministry of home affairs.

Offenders from Hyderabad, Jagadgirigutta (Cyberabad), Yadagirigutta (Rachakonda), Karimnagar, Warangal, and Jagtial were identified and arrested.“All 15 were picked up in a single-day operation. These are repeat offenders linked to 34 previous cases, including 17 registered directly by TGCSB,” said TGCSB director Shikha Goel.

Among the accused, the IIT graduate reportedly earns Rs 35 lakh per annum and resides in Hyderabad with his wife and daughter.

Another accused is an unemployed engineering graduate from Yadagirigutta with a prior CSEAM case. Others work in varied occupations, including automobile repair, construction, and retail sales.“The accused are aged between 19 and 50, mostly in their twenties, and largely from middle-class backgrounds. The children in the content appear to be aged between 6 and 14 years, and 90% are girls, mostly from other countries,” Goel added.The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.TGCSB serves as the state’s nodal agency for handling complaints related to CSEAM, including child pornography and sexual violence cases, received through platforms such as the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), cyber tiplines, and the case management tools of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

The child protection unit also conducts surveillance across social media, as well as cyber patrolling on the dark and deep web.“In one case, we were able to rescue a child victim from Suryapet who appeared in CSEAM material. Identifying a victim from tipline data is extremely rare, but our team succeeded. Let it be clear that browsing such content is a punishable offence. We are monitoring all such activity, and action will be swift and strict,” Goel said.Officials said the offenders accessed the content through closed social media groups or the dark web, in some cases by paying for it. Police will seek custody of the accused to trace the networks.